The art is replete with many types of ammunition designed for a wide variety of uses and effects, ranging in the case of hand-held guns, from hard lead pointed penetration projectiles to multiple bursting projectiles such as shot gun pellets on the one hand, and so-called "Glaser" rounds for penetration and the tearing of lethal holes in the recipient, on the other hand. In all such devices, the approach is to employ a rather slow-burning powder to create the required gas expulsion pressure in the cartridge or shell casing to generate muzzle velocity necessary to launch and carry the hard lead projectile(s), packed in the cartridge, to the target for the intended penetration and, most often, lethal effects.
Emphasis in both police and military applications has been also upon developing aiming expertise, with the particular end in view of hitting a precise spot behind which lies an organ or other body part that the bullet is to enter or where the projectile(s) should burst in order to kill the assailant. Multiple firings of successive rounds is provided for in revolvers and semi-automatic and automatic weaponry to insure the ultimate result if the first projectile fails to achieve its goal. Such conditions are described, for example, in an article entitled "Accurately Predicting Stopping Power" appearing in Guns Magazine, 1992.
There are occasions and circumstances, however, including personal or home self-defense, as well as police, military and other uses, where society generally deems it preferable to achieve the stopping or disabling of an attacker or other threatening individual, without inflicting a likely lethal result, and otherwise with low inflicted collateral damage, and most desirably with greatly reduced ricochet potential.
It is to such applications that the present invention is in large measure primarily directed, having also the concomitant synergistic effects of reducing both the required aiming skills and the number of bullets that must be carried in the weapon and potentially fired.